


The One Thing Left

by sameeeeen



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 22:46:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5393072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sameeeeen/pseuds/sameeeeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Samantha Groves watched as the love of her life fell to the ground. She screamed and cried, tightly gripping the elevator gate. The shaft door closes with one last glimpse of Sameen Shaw's face. What happens next?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Thing Left

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place right after 4x11 (If-Then-Else) in the elevator shaft and continues on from there. I actually wrote this first chapter for an English assignment and thought it would be fun to write more chapters. The assignment had a page limit so expect future chapters to be longer. Not only do I like to focus on the Root/Shaw relationship, I also like to focus on Harold and Root's friendship. Please enjoy and comment your thoughts and ideas!

The One Thing Left

Samantha Groves tightly gripped on to the gate of the elevator shaft. Harold and Lionel quickly took a hold of Root’s wrists and arms, attempting to pull her back, away from the view of their friend’s sacrifice. Root should not have to see this. Her cries were muted by the gunshots that would bring Sameen closer and closer to her death. Ms. Shaw grew weaker with every bullet that hit her. Harold’s eyes welled with tears as he saw Sameen fall to the ground. They finally unattached Root from the gate, and she fell to the ground towards the back of the shaft as the door shut. 

Root’s cries echoed through the elevator shaft. Harold and Lionel stood in shock as the shaft went up, farther and farther away from Ms. Shaw. John was unconscious, which was probably for the best, since he would have sacrificed himself instead. Harold couldn’t lose him. He looked down at his friend, tears running down her terror filled face. Harold knelt down and brought her into his arms. At first she resisted, not wanting to give in to the rushed grief, but she quickly gave in and collapsed on to him, crying into his shoulder. Harold wrapped his arms around her and put one hand on the back of her head. Detective Fusco stood in the corner of the elevator shaft staring in shock, John still unconscious on the floor. The elevator jerked suddenly as they arrived at ground level.

“We need to move”, Lionel said. You could see in his eyes that it hurt him to talk. To act as if nothing had happened. Root stayed in Harold’s arms. He looked at Lionel sympathetically as if to say that they needed to her some time. Fusco nodded. Harold took a deep breath to hold himself together. He needed to be strong right now. For Samantha. “shhhh” he said to calm her down. She couldn’t breathe. She just witnessed the love of her life being shot down. Harold began to stand. Lionel helped him up.

“We need to go back down there. We have to save her.”, Root cried.

“Samantha-” Harold was interrupted.

“Sameen’s still down there!” Shouted Samantha. She couldn’t just walk away.

“Ms. Groves, if we go back down there, we will be killed.” 

“We don’t know that.”

“Ms. Shaw sacrificed herself so we could escape. We cannot let that go to waste. She would not want us to put that to waste- to put us in danger.” Harold tried his hardest to keep himself together.

“But we can’t just leave her. I won’t leave her!” shouted Root.

There was a moment of silence. Harold knew that the longer they stayed there, the more dangerous their situation became. He knew that John needed serious medical attention, and fast. But at the same time, Ms. Shaw was part of the family too. She had sacrificed her life for them and she deserved more than to be left behind.

“We will find Sameen, Ms. Groves. She has survived under worse circumstances. There is still hope.” Harold didn’t even believe himself. The possibility of survival under those circumstances-even for Sameen- were inconceivable.

Samantha closed her eyes in pain. She remembered the feeling. When Sameen kissed her, right before she pushed her back from the gate, the whole world stopped. The time of rush and panic slowed down. She wanted to stay there forever.

Root stood in the middle of the elevator shaft. Leaving Sameen behind would be too painful, but she couldn’t put Harold in any kind of danger. He was too important to her. But then again, so was Sameen. The two choices felt like ropes, pulling her each way like a tug of war. She looked at Harold. His desperate expression pulled at her. 

“Help me get John up,” she said. Harold let out a quick sigh of relief. He struggled to lift John up off of the floor. Root held on to the other side of him. He had lost a lot of blood, If it weren’t for John, Harold would be the one unconscious.

They walked as fast as they could with John in between them, Lionel rushing alongside Harold. He figured he should be there in case Harold’s back gave out or his leg became too painful. 

 

They went out the back door of the stock exchange. The sunlight burned Root’s eyes. It was still daytime. It felt as if they had been underground for an eternity. They could hear the busy streets of New York, people bustling about, oblivious to the events happening around them. Root’s world may have stopped, but the world around her kept moving. 

They put John in the backseat of Harold’s car and Fusco sat down next to him. Harold opened the driver’s door and looked at Root over the roof of the car. She stood by the passenger door, hesitant. 

“Root?”   
Samantha broke her gaze and looked at Harold. 

“Do you really believe that Sameen is is alive?” she asked.

“Do you?” replied Harold. Root paused.

“Yes.” She replied. Samantha had hope. Unbreakable hope.

“Then I suppose she must be. If you believe that she is okay, that’s all the assurance we need.”

“I never said I believed she was okay. I said I believe that she’s alive.”

Harold nodded and looked down.

“We’ll find her,” he reassured. “Whatever her condition, we’ll find her.”

Root took a deep breath and sat down in the passenger seat. Harold got into the driver’s seat and started the car. He drove. Farther away Sameen every second. Tears flooded her eyes as she relived that terrible moment. She looked down at her stomach, remembering her bullet wound. So much had happened that she had paid no attention to it.

“It’s my fault,” she told Harold. 

“Samantha-” Root cut him off.

“I asked her to help us today. If it weren’t for me, Sameen wouldn’t have even been involved.”

Harold shook his head. “What Sameen did - what she did for us - you didn’t cause that. She sacrificed herself to save our lives.”

“There had to have been some other way.”

“There wasn’t. Ms. Groves, if Sameen wouldn’t have pushed that button, you would be dead.”

“I don’t care what happens to me. I should have gone instead.”

“Don’t say that.” Harold said sternly. 

The car was flooded with grief and silence. Root looked out the window. She wanted to apologize to Harold, but she couldn’t. She meant what she said.

She thought about the kiss. Had Sameen kissed her because she loved her, or because she knew she was going to die? She thought about the terrifying loud “boom”. Was it the shaft door shutting, or Martine’s gunshot putting Sameen out of her misery? She needed the answers. She wondered if Harold had lied when he said that there is a good chance that Sameen is alive. He isn’t the kind of person to give hope, but this situation was different. Either way, she was going to find Sameen, dead or alive. She needed to know.

“We’ll find you, Sameen,” She whispered, “I promise.”.


End file.
